How to Spot a Jerk Boss
A buddy of mine is working for a jerk. Unfortunately, he feels economically trapped at the moment, so he’s suffering through it. The question that keeps going through his mind is: “How come I didn’t spot this when I interviewed?”
He’s not stupid or inexperienced. But, he wasn’t looking at the right things. He was looking at the company, the job, and the compensation; not the boss. Of course, the boss is the most important thing a lot of the time. In fact, the boss is cited as the number one contributor to why someone leaves his or her job.
One of the things that I’m always curious about is how to figure it out earlier. Baseball players, the really good hitters, can figure out the pitch at the top of the wind up. And meteorologists predict hurricane seasons a year in advance. But how do you predict jerks? It’s not like they necessarily look like jerks.
To answer that question, my friend and I are working on a list of ways to spot jerks earlier. Here’s what we have so far…
1. How do they talk about their wife, kids, family (if they do at all)?
2. How do they talk about the last person who held your job?
3. Ask them to show you the reports that they will be managing you with—if they have too many, the wrong ones or don’t have reports at all, that’s a bad sign.
4. Ask them what they read or listen to for brain food. If they don’t read/listen to anything—that’s another bad sign. If they do, but can’t tell you how they’re working it into their leadership and management style, that’s another bad sign.
5. Ask him or her to describe the best qualities of the five key reports who will report to you. If they can’t, or don’t know, or pick out only personality traits: bad sign.
6. Find out their “claim.” Every senior person has a “claim.” It’s some event in their career that they feel defines the highpoint in their work. What is the claim and how did they achieve it? If the story lacks other people, or puts them in the success alone and everyone else including their subordinates as the enemy: bad sign.
7. How are they organized? Is their office, briefcase, wallet or schedule a mess? If it is, you will be picking up the slack as far as last minute requests, double-booked appointments, missing reports and misunderstood requirements.
8. Ask them the behavioral traits that they liked of the best person who ever worked for them. If they match yours, good sign. If not, well, you get it.
This is my quick list. Do you have anything to add?
Tom,
Just a few quick additions.
- Eye contact is big for me. Lack of eye contact may not clearly identify a jerk, but can be an indicator of sincerity, or if your being listened to. (Taken seriously as you ask the questions you provided as examples in your post)
- Clear Direction – if you cannot obtain clear direction (general or specific) from the individual who will have a significant influence in evaluating your success, then your path to growth could be fraught with unnecessary risk)
- Indications of “double-talk” – Honesty is an absolute must for any relationship to grow and thrive healthily.
1Eli-
2I agree with all of yours- I think that sometimes the double-talk is the tough one to sort out. I will let people go on an explanation if I think that they are thinking out loud so as to allow them to come to the clearest answer- but I get lost and have to back up and re-phrase the question. It’s like listening to Greenspan- you need video-tape, a frame-by-frame rewind and an interpreter to figure out what he’s saying. Any recommendations on how to sort out a double-talker from someone who is just formulating their thoughts?
Eli,
I agree with you – one very important thing for me is eye contact: a person’s eyes can give away a lot without you having to read books on body language to be able to interpret what is not being said.
Another important thing for me is the language and in particular the words a person chooses to use. Long convoluted sentences, phrases and words to some may be natural but others use it as power play: knowledge is power. This leads me on to the next indication and that is how perceptive someone is to another individual not understanding and their reaction to it. Do they seek to show the person up? Do they seek to gloss over it? Or do they confront the individual in a constructive manner reassuring them that it is alright that they haven’t understood and here is a further explanation/clarification.
My one pet hate is when someone says a lot that means actually very little. When asked a question they use ‘marketing speak’ so as not to directly answer the question. Once again, by not answering the question they remain in control as, if they know the answer, they therefore have the knowledge whilst you don’t.
3Luke,
4Wow- you said a lot in your last paragraph- Seems to happen a great deal in my business. Thanks for posting up!